thought, down to
moments of sickness and sadness when nothing else captivates; because
we may go the rounds of all literature, and grow surfeited with every
other great author, and learn a dozen languages and a score of
philosophical systems, and travel the wide world over, and come back
to Shakespeare at length, fresh as ever, and begin at the beginning of
his infinite meanings once more,--are we therefore to consider him as
separated from mortality? Are we to raise him to the heavens, as in
the magnificent eulogium of Keats, who heads creation with "things
real, as sun, stars, and passages of Shakespeare"? Or are we to erect
into a creed the bold words I once heard an enthusiast soberly say,
"that it is impossible to think of Shakespeare as a man"? Or shall we
reverently own, that, as man's humility first bids him separate
himself from these his great superiors, so his faith and hope bring
him back to them and renew the tie. It paralyzes my intellect if I
doubt whether Shakespeare was a man; it paralyzes my whole spiritual
nature if I doubt whether Jesus was.

Therefore I believe that all religion is natural, all revealed. What
faith in humanity springs up, what trust in God, when one recognizes
the sympathy of religions! Every race believes in a Creator and
Governor of the world, in whom devout souls recognize a Father also.
Every race believes in immortality. Every race recognizes in its
religious precepts the brotherhood of man. The whole gigantic system
of caste in Hindostan has grown up in defiance of the Vedas, which are
now being invoked to abolish them. The Heetopades of Vishnu Sarman
forbid caste. "Is this one of our tribe or a stranger? is the
calculation of the narrow-minded; but, to those of a noble
disposition, the earth itself is but one family." "What is religion?"
says elsewhere the same book, and answers, "Tenderness toward all
creatures." "He is my beloved of whom mankind are not afraid and who
of mankind is not afraid," says the Bhagvat Geeta. "Kesava is pleased
with him who does good to others, ... who is always desirous of the
welfare of all creatures," says the Vishnu Purana. In Confucius it is
written, "My doctrine is simple and easy to understand;" and his chief
disciple adds, "It consists only in having the heart right and in
loving one's neighbor as one's self." When he was asked, "Is there one
word which may serve as a rule of practice for all one's life?" he
answered, "Is not 'Reciprocity'